Westlife.
Credit: Special Arrangement
That evening, being a fan of Westlife wasn’t enough. Being a fan who could sing every song of theirs and who knew when to pause, when to hum and when to raise their pitch was ideal. My memory was rusty but the 90s’ kids around me — now working, married or new parents — had come ready. They had brushed up on the songs of love, heartbreak, friendship, and the pangs of growing up that had dominated their school and college life.
I was determined to ride the Westlife wave. I had fought bad traffic and then a rain scare to be there. I turned to Google for lyrics. I was set to soak in an evening of familiar songs, fond memories, and the joy one feels around people with the same taste in music. A part of me was apprehensive if the Westlife ‘boys’, now in their 40s, would sound as good and fresh as they once did.
The Irish pop group was in Bengaluru last Saturday performing as part of The Wild Dreams Tour – India, produced and promoted by BookMyShow.
Brian McFadden wasn’t around. He quit the boy band in 2004, something die-hard fan Pankhuri Agarwal can’t come to terms with to this day. Westlife now comprises Shane Filan, Mark Feehily, Kian Egan, and Nicky Byrne. Be it their singing, energy or audience engagement, the quartet delivered on all counts.
They opened the show with an upbeat ‘Starlight’ from their 2021 ‘Wild Dreams’ album before turning to crowd-favourites. ‘Are you ready to feel young again?’, they asked before they began. ‘Uptown girl’ (2001) and ‘When you’re looking like that’ (2000) had the fans moving and grooving, the rain-induced slush of the concert ground being no bother. Before the concert, I had asked fans what the closing song would be. The bittersweet ‘Fool again’ was the popular choice. But I was sure the farewell anthem would be ‘Seasons in the sun’. We were wrong. Mid-concert, the set list segued to the 1999 hits ‘Fool again’, ‘If I let you go’, ‘Swear it again’ and ‘Seasons in the sun’. They also performed ‘My love’ (2000) while admitting they never knew India loved it so much. I can testify. I sang this one without much help: An empty street, an empty house, a hole inside my heart. ‘You raise me up’ (2005) was an unlikely choice to close the show but an inspiring one.
The band left the stage and a friend said ‘It feels incomplete’. She was right. For a band that has 11 No. 1 albums and 16 No. 1 singles to its credit, can 90 minutes be enough? To ‘complete’ the show, I have been playing Westlife on loop since the evening of the performance, committing the lyrics to memory.